Well we knew it wouldn't be easy. We set off at 6:45. A hire boat had passed us on the mooring about 2 minutes earlier, but there was no sign of it ahead. Pat said it was "going well". The canal appeared deep at the top and the boat was making good progress in spite of a bit of rubbish on the prop from time to time. We reached the first lock and there was the hire boat, stuck half way out of the lock. THey were trying to pull it out with a rope. I opened the top paddle and flushed them out only to ground again immediately after. As the top pound was down about a foot, I decided to let a lot of water down and fill it, because if they grounded, then we certainly would. This done they got moving and we soon followed. It was still touch and go getting out of the lock. The BW lock keeper appeared and seemed quite happy with what we had done, and more to the point, that we were no longer stuck. Then a bit further on, after one very stiff swing bridge, the boat ahead seemed to be spending too long prepping a lock. Pat went down to investigate and reported that the lock wouldn't fill because the bottom gates would not close properly. He had tried using his pole to clear the presumed ostruction but it was too short to reach the cill. I had a go with my long one and got nowhere. However, by opening the other gate fully, then slamming the bad one we managed to shift the obstruction only to have it jam the other gate as if it was a long object. This time the pole worked. However, filling the lock took a lot of what was left in the pound and they were now listing severely and stuck on the bank. More water let down! All this malarky had taken us a lot of time to which one must add the messing about with paddle locks and the lack of decent lock landings below to facilitate exits. So we finally reached the top of the Rochdale 9 after 6 1/2 hours exhausting work. Then we had the fun of the 9; the lock with no towpath access by Canal St really upset Pat, who had walked on. There is a short bit of new pontoon at the top and a landing below to get on and off, but no good if you are on the other side of the wall. We reached Castlefield at 15:30, exhausted after what had not really been a long day in our experience.
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